Big Brother Wanted to Track Your Used Book Purchases
Government Drops Pursuit of Online Used-Book Buyers
Federal prosecutors have withdrawn a subpoena seeking the identities of some people who bought used books through Amazon.com, newly unsealed court records show.
The withdrawal came after a judge ruled that the customers have a First Amendment right to keep their reading habits from the government.
The subpoena's "chilling effect on expressive e-commerce would frost keyboards across America," U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen Crocker wrote in a June ruling.
"Well-founded or not, rumors of an Orwellian federal criminal investigation into the reading habits of Amazon's customers could frighten countless potential customers into canceling planned online book purchases," the judge wrote in a ruling he unsealed last week.
Amazon, based in Seattle, said in court documents that it hopes Crocker's decision will make it more difficult for prosecutors to obtain records involving book purchases. Assistant U.S. Attorney John Vaudreuil said yesterday that he doubted that the ruling would hamper legitimate investigations.
READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE HERE.
Hey! Big Brother and Uncle Karl's Sock Puppet/Current-Occupier-of-the-White-House! I JUST BOUGHT SOME USED BOOKS AT AMAZON! Come and get me you big bullies! You can kiss my all-American ass, you idiots. I am descended from Robert Treat Paine, who signed the Declaration of Independence and I'm not giving up one iota of my G-d given rights to paranoid jerks like you! Screw you. And if that's a federal crime, then COME AND GET ME.
Meanwhile, I'll keep reading and whatever the hell it is I'm reading is none of your damn business.
For the rest of you, I'm currently reading Nelson DeMille's "Wild Fire," which is shaping up as a right-wing extremist's wet dream. The villian in the story sounds a helluva lot like some of the rich powerful right-wing extremist garbage that's currently ruining this country.
Federal prosecutors have withdrawn a subpoena seeking the identities of some people who bought used books through Amazon.com, newly unsealed court records show.
The withdrawal came after a judge ruled that the customers have a First Amendment right to keep their reading habits from the government.
The subpoena's "chilling effect on expressive e-commerce would frost keyboards across America," U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen Crocker wrote in a June ruling.
"Well-founded or not, rumors of an Orwellian federal criminal investigation into the reading habits of Amazon's customers could frighten countless potential customers into canceling planned online book purchases," the judge wrote in a ruling he unsealed last week.
Amazon, based in Seattle, said in court documents that it hopes Crocker's decision will make it more difficult for prosecutors to obtain records involving book purchases. Assistant U.S. Attorney John Vaudreuil said yesterday that he doubted that the ruling would hamper legitimate investigations.
READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE HERE.
Hey! Big Brother and Uncle Karl's Sock Puppet/Current-Occupier-of-the-White-House! I JUST BOUGHT SOME USED BOOKS AT AMAZON! Come and get me you big bullies! You can kiss my all-American ass, you idiots. I am descended from Robert Treat Paine, who signed the Declaration of Independence and I'm not giving up one iota of my G-d given rights to paranoid jerks like you! Screw you. And if that's a federal crime, then COME AND GET ME.
Meanwhile, I'll keep reading and whatever the hell it is I'm reading is none of your damn business.
For the rest of you, I'm currently reading Nelson DeMille's "Wild Fire," which is shaping up as a right-wing extremist's wet dream. The villian in the story sounds a helluva lot like some of the rich powerful right-wing extremist garbage that's currently ruining this country.
Labels: Amazon, Amazon.com, Big Brother, books, First Amendment, freedom, government, privacy, reading, used books
posted by uhuru1701 at 10:20 AM
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